The Return of RP Records?

Sun Mar 14 18:06:29 UTC 1999

Greetings.

With the recent and only somewhat confirmed removal of POC information
from the Internic Whois database, and the upcoming set of newcomers to the
field, will we perhaps see a return or rise to popularity of RP dns
records?

Having your nameserver be able to dole out contact information for your
domains, site, and hosts is a nice alternative to having no source of this
information. Unfortunately, if your nameserver(s) are down when someone is
trying to contact you, the effort is futile.

The two biggest things that made whois useful in locating contact
information were that EVERY domain in the Internic-controlled TLD's had
contact information in Whois by requirement of Internic- and the database
somewhat centralized. There were multiple whois servers with all the
information, and you were usually able to obtain that information even if
network connectivity to a site was down.

As whois becomes less and less useful, we may find ourselves seeking
sanity in RP records. Unfortunately, it would appear that this is a
mediocre solution at best.

file this one under thoughts, random.

-jeff

Jeff Godin
Network Specialist
Traverse Area District Library / Traverse Community Network
jeff at tcnet.org - 616/932-8546 voice